Outskirts Press, INC.

Another Riveting Lee Martin Mystery

In the small, impoverished mountain village of Eleanor, Kentucky, a barbarous man named Luther Walsh, who in a position of authority as both the town mayor and church pastor, unleashes a campaign of persecution and intimidation against two of the community’s upstanding citizens…a young doctor, Jude Adcock, and an eighteen year-old recent high school graduate, Max O’Sullivan. Why? It began with Max when at a church picnic the Reverend Walsh caught him disappearing into the woods with his girlfriend, Sheila, and accusing the teen of illicit sexual conduct. Words then escalated between them that culminated in Walsh striking young Max in the face. And then it is Jude who makes an enemy of the mayor when upon examining and treating Walsh’s severely battered wife, accuses him of the brutal assault. Not only does the mayor deny it, he threatens to have Jude disgraced and fired. For almost two years, a battle among the three of them has raged with Walsh relentlessly badgering both Jude and Max with his bullying tactics at every opportunity. However, of more pressing concern are the suspicious deaths that have been occurring around town, one of which tears at the very fiber of Max’s heart. Were these people actually murdered, and can their deaths somehow be tied to Walsh? Both Max and Dr. Adcock think so, and with the help of a county sheriff’s deputy, they begin piecing together evidence to prove it. Finally, there is the case of Amos Peterson, a mysterious hermit living up in the mountain woods near the Devil’s Tea Table. It is Max who in befriending the cantankerous codger, learns of the tragic secret the man has harbored for over fifty years. So, how does an old mountain recluse fit into the equation? More than one might think. In this compelling story of undaunted courage, hope and vindication set in the Appalachians in the late 1950s, what ultimately happens to these people ends up turning the town inside out. When all is said and done, none of their lives will ever be the same.